The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-05-19
NUMBER II.
SOciabllity in Cities.

The science of s0ciability seems in
danger of becoming lost art in many
of our larger cities, and it is pity that
it should be so.
Take New York as a case in point
In the time of the anc ent Knicker-
bockers, when the infant city of New
Amsterdam occupied but an insignifi-
cant portion of the Island of the Man
hadocs." every citizen of repute was i'll
t,mately acquainted with every other
citizen of like good standing. The men
smoked their pipes together in social
silence, and the women d scussed last
year fashions in old Amsterdam across
the ocean, or compared the patterns in
which they deity sanded their "best
rooms" The Broad Way which cx-
tended from the fort and parade, at
what is now known as the Battery, to
Wall street was lined wi til the houses
of solid Dutch burgess. each standing
comfortably in the midst of flower
and vegetable garden, and each as uni
fornly fronted by Il broad "stoop," set
| with substantial Oaken benches and all
shaded by the handsome rows of trees
that lined the street OH both sides. On
the stoops the solid men of the city sat
in the afternoons to receive their neigh
bors, and here also was the throne of
woman's kingdom. Sociablitv was the
crown NC virtue of the little Dutch city,
and the kindly hospitality they so de-
votedly pract ced was duly transmitted
to their English succors.
1t is only fifty Years that the man
who owned house in Gotham knew
everybody on his block, if not in his
| ward, and was proud to do So Now
it seems to be the fashion to affect a
lack of knowledge of ones next door
neighbor and to profess profound in
| difference to his fate. As to sitting on
the front stoop, no person 'in society"
would venture to do it after dark. and
then only amid such profound silence
as would be certain not to attract at
| tentlOn. This the unwritten law of
| fashion seems to demand, but surely
no one would venture to assert that
the change is for the better.
In some of our western C ties, where
fashion is less rigid in her edicts or less
obeyed Il more sociable and therefore
more enjoyable state of affairs
prevails. On some of the most fashion
able avenues of Chicago, for instance,
a custom preva Is which strikes the
stranger at once with approval. In
the early afternoon, servant VII un-
roll upon the stone portico and steps.
which answer NOWADAYS to the old-fash-
ioned stoop, a roll of handsome car
pet ing, and the members OF the fam ly.
from time to time. individually or col
lectivelt. will sit there. They read.
chat, sew. smoke or do otherwise rs
they please while they enjoy each
other S soc etv and the breez,s from
the lake. Neighbors drop in. singly
OF in groups, and here and there make
quite Il levee 1t is much less formal
and far more plcasurable than stiff
call i'll study parlor. And it keeps
alive the fire on the sacred alter of
soc ability.
1t is good thing that the fresh and
vigorous life of the west comes in to
break up the formality that fashion die
tates at the east. The kindly ways oi
the olden time, when the law of hos
pitality was recognized everywhere.
ought not lightly to be laid aside. Ii
may be all we'll enough to laugh at the
quaint ways and curious manners OF
our ancestors, but they took great
deal of enjoyment out of life as they
passed through the world. The broker
hurr, ,ing home from Wall street in the
afternoon, with every nerve tense ant
his brain in whirl. is scarcely as much
TO be envied as lis old Dutch progeni
tor who sat in his stoop as the sur
declined blowing great clouds of smoke
over the heads of his assembled neigh
bors and shaking betimes with tht
laughter wh CHI betokens an absence
of mortal cares. If the man of to-da,
is as wise as the man of yesterday hi
will do his best to prevent sociabilit.
from ever becoming one of the los
arts.-Maa, in NeW York Mercury.